MUZAFFARABAD: From a college student union office-bearer to the presiding officer of the legislature, Chaudhry Tariq Farooq has travelled through nearly four decades of politics to become Speaker of the newly constituted Legislative Assembly of Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir (PaJK).
The senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader was elected Speaker following the recent general elections, marking a significant new chapter in a career that has taken him through local government, cabinet positions, opposition politics, parliamentary committees and senior positions within his party.
For Farooq, who hails from Bhimber, the Speaker’s chair also marks a political comeback after he lost his Assembly seat in the 2021 elections.
His return this time came through a high-profile contest from LA-7 Bhimber-III, where he defeated former prime minister Chaudhry Anwar-ul-Haq by a clear margin. The victory returned him to the Assembly and paved the way for his nomination by the PML-N for one of the legislature’s most important constitutional positions.
Farooq’s political career began well before he entered electoral politics. As a student, he was elected general secretary of his college students’ union, giving him his first experience of representative politics.
He entered mainstream electoral politics in the 1987 local government elections. At just 27, he was elected a member of the District Council, beginning a political career that would eventually take him from Bhimber’s local politics to the centre of PaJK’s political establishment.
A lawyer by profession, Farooq gradually built a political profile combining grassroots organisation with experience in law, legislative affairs and government.
He was among the early leaders involved in building the PML-N’s organisational structure in PaJK and remained associated with the party through successive periods of political upheaval.
Farooq has served as the PML-N’s senior vice president and currently holds the key organisational position of secretary general of the party in PaJK.
His experience inside the legislature is equally extensive.
Farooq has served several times as a minister, headed the Public Accounts Committee and worked as deputy leader of the opposition, giving him experience on both sides of the Assembly aisle.
His political standing rose further after the 2016 elections, when the PML-N formed the government in PaJK. Farooq was appointed the Most Senior Minister and remained in the position from 2016 until 2021, emerging as one of the most influential figures in the government.
The 2021 elections, however, brought a reversal.
During the period when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was in power in Islamabad, political realignments were sweeping through PaJK. Farooq was approached as part of efforts to persuade prominent politicians to change their political loyalties, according to people familiar with developments at the time.
He chose to remain with the PML-N.
His supporters describe the decision as evidence of political consistency and loyalty to the party during one of its difficult periods. Farooq subsequently lost his Assembly seat in the 2021 general elections.
The defeat, however, did not end his role within the PML-N or PaJK politics.
Comeback from Bhimber
Farooq returned to the electoral arena in the latest elections from his home constituency of LA-7 Bhimber-III on the PML-N ticket.
The contest assumed added political significance because he faced former prime minister Chaudhry Anwar-ul-Haq.
Farooq emerged victorious with a clear lead, securing his return to the legislature after five years outside the Assembly.
It was also his fourth consecutive election on a PML-N ticket. Across those four contests, he has recorded three victories and one defeat.
With the PML-N emerging in a position to form the new government, Farooq’s parliamentary experience and seniority placed him among the leading contenders for an important role in the new Assembly.
The party eventually nominated him for Speaker, and his election placed him in charge of the institution in which he has spent much of his political career as minister, government member and opposition politician.
The transition, however, presents Farooq with a challenge different from those he faced during his years in government and party politics.
As Speaker, he will be expected to rise above partisan loyalties and act as the custodian of the entire House.
The office requires its holder to maintain a balance between the treasury and opposition benches, enforce parliamentary rules and ensure that members across political parties are given a fair opportunity to participate in proceedings.
That task could become particularly important in a legislature emerging from an intensely contested election and at a time when PaJK is facing significant political, economic and governance challenges.
Farooq’s supporters point to his political experience, negotiating skills and familiarity with parliamentary procedures as strengths that could help him navigate a potentially difficult House.
His political network also extends beyond his home district of Bhimber. Over the years, he has developed connections among PML-N workers across PaJK as well as within the Pakistani and Kashmiri diaspora in Britain and other European countries.
But occupying the Speaker’s chair will test a different aspect of that experience.
After decades as an identifiable PML-N politician, Farooq will now be judged by how successfully he can separate the responsibilities of the Speaker from his position within the party.
His journey has already taken him through almost every major layer of PaJK politics: student activism, local government, the Legislative Assembly, cabinet office, opposition politics, the Public Accounts Committee, party organisation and the position of Most Senior Minister.
The Speaker’s chair is therefore not merely another office in Farooq’s political career.
For the veteran politician from Bhimber, it marks the beginning of a new role in which political loyalty that helped shape his career must give way, inside the Assembly chamber, to parliamentary neutrality.
After nearly four decades in politics, the challenge before Tariq Farooq is no longer simply to represent his party or constituency. It is to demonstrate that he can preside over the entire House.
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